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<blockquote data-quote="Josiah Stoll" data-source="post: 7503004" data-attributes="member: 6881836">I am our group’s DM most of the time, but I’m new to the hobby (senior in high school, started playing as an 8th grader, never had the opportunity to play under an experienced DM) and it’s been hard to create encounters that are interesting, different, and provide everyone a good opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way.If I play disallowing metagame social skills, the Bards/Sorcs/Warlocks are the only ones who get to do stuff; and if I allow out of game social skills to influence events, the most charismatic player hogs screentime.I’ve looked online for advice on how to make the game more interesting in and out of combat (phb and dmg are kinda worthless at giving DM advice) but the responses that I’ve gotten have been:Do funny voices out of combat(My voice is kinda raspy, so everyone sounds kinda like Batman)Vary monster tactics in combat(Do you mean monster attack descriptions? Most low level monsters only have one or two viable combat strategies)Figure out how to put the Fighter’s piss-poor skills to use(The amount of doors this poor guy has to push open...)Add little details that make the world more fleshed out(This one’s actually pretty good, unfortunately it’s something I picked up from reading 1d4 chan, 4e stuff, and the Pathfinder Bestiary. All of which can be found for less than $40)WotC seems to think that random tables are the best way to do worldbuilding, but every English/Writing/Drama course I’ve taken suggests otherwise.I’ll start a thread dedicated to advice-getting, but I can’t find the button to do so.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Josiah Stoll, post: 7503004, member: 6881836"] I am our group’s DM most of the time, but I’m new to the hobby (senior in high school, started playing as an 8th grader, never had the opportunity to play under an experienced DM) and it’s been hard to create encounters that are interesting, different, and provide everyone a good opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way. If I play disallowing metagame social skills, the Bards/Sorcs/Warlocks are the only ones who get to do stuff; and if I allow out of game social skills to influence events, the most charismatic player hogs screentime. I’ve looked online for advice on how to make the game more interesting in and out of combat (phb and dmg are kinda worthless at giving DM advice) but the responses that I’ve gotten have been: Do funny voices out of combat (My voice is kinda raspy, so everyone sounds kinda like Batman) Vary monster tactics in combat (Do you mean monster attack descriptions? Most low level monsters only have one or two viable combat strategies) Figure out how to put the Fighter’s piss-poor skills to use (The amount of doors this poor guy has to push open...) Add little details that make the world more fleshed out (This one’s actually pretty good, unfortunately it’s something I picked up from reading 1d4 chan, 4e stuff, and the Pathfinder Bestiary. All of which can be found for less than $40) WotC seems to think that random tables are the best way to do worldbuilding, but every English/Writing/Drama course I’ve taken suggests otherwise. I’ll start a thread dedicated to advice-getting, but I can’t find the button to do so. [/QUOTE]

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